A highly secret, largely undocumented computer trading system was maintained and “used solely to create and maintain an alternate reality of trades never made.”

Short-lived Madoff IT project manager Bob McMahon said “I asked myself how Bernie could have hidden and maintained this [his swindling] for so long. A lot of it was done because he had proprietary and legacy systems. And he relied on IT people he hired and paid,” to not upset the status quo.

In what the writer, John Dodge, calls “a cautionary tale to information technology managers and executives up and down Wall Street” he admonishes:

If you think something is amiss, don’t let it rest. Do your own investigation. Before the company you work for turns out to be missing as well.

Sometimes that takes guts, and earns you no credit. Even if you’re a geek.